More Upsets and Not

Many recent messages have looked at the importance of doing good to the environment as we do business and invest. One area of focus has been about whether it makes sense to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and whether there is enough potential oil (and the need) to risk harming the this pristine area.

The last message on this subject was sent with some trepidation because many readers seem very polarized and my fears were that some would be upset. I wrote,

”Many of my readers have been mad when I have previously written about

“Gary, You are right. This information makes me mad. Take me off your list.”

Another was not mad but didn’t agree when he added,

“Gary, you didn’t anger me the first time you got on the subject of arctic drilling and it doesn’t this time either. HOWEVER having said that, I still maintain that you and your friends that followed the migration of the carribou do NOT know what you are talking about. I spent 10 years working in the arctic and also did some study about the impact on the environment and once again I’m telling you that the herds in the vicinity of Prudhoe bay have increased as a result of the presence of the drilling activity……..that’s not an opinion…its been documented. "I'm sure with your connections you could arrange a tour of the operations at Prudhoe Bay and I sure wish you would since you keep banging on the drum of stopping the drilling up there. The technology has improved so drastically that the drilling in a HUGE area can all be done from a very small location for one thing………in other words a tiny dot in the immensity of what comprises the north slope……..if you would do that and actually try to see it thru their eyes and THEN still take your position I could respect your opinions on this matter.” "We wrote back and forth once on this subject and your comment to me was that you had been there once…..c’mon Gary I was there for 10 years…….I respect your knowledge in many area's but until you actually go in, get a tour and learn about it from the other side I’m still telling you that you don’t know what the heck you are talking about here.”

However another oil engineer who lived and worked in this area for half a decade as well has the exact opposite view and wrote.

“I just finished reading about the Arctic wildlife preserve and a wellspring of feelings and emotions came through that is difficult to put into words. The migration routes of the Caribou I have experienced first hand both on the ground or flown over in small prop airplanes. My 5-year experience working and living in arctic Canada, an area so immense and so diverse, so beautiful has left an indelible imprint on my soul. Reading the article opened the portal; the images and the descriptions of their experiences I could totally feel personally as if I was there. This is one of the last great areas of the world where nature is still in, harmony the way it was thousands of years ago. The Richardson Mountains are a unique geographical area that was never glaciated during the ice ages. The drilling and exploration will definitely affect the caribou calving area. How could anyone even think of destroying such a natural wonder. The huge natural gas reserves shut in the Alaska north slope would benefit the US much more than the little bit of extra oil. Again rather than having one common pipeline with Canada to bring these resources to market in an ecologically sound and commercially viable manner the US Government propose a separate pipeline through Alaska to the Yukon costing billions more and therefore is going to be subsidized by the US to make it viable and is included in the current energy bill.”

Another wrote,

“Gary I want to applaud your spunk for bringing an environmental perspective into our investment purview. Like you, I have a good number of wealthy neo-con friends. I must say, their insular view of the world is a source of great concern. At a time when The U.S. ranks as the most hated nation in the world, our rapacious greed especially in the area of foreign oil continues unabated. As I travel the world, there is an increasingly palpable sense of mistrust and in some cases outright hostility to US tourists. I encountered this personally during a trip to Chili this past summer. Instead of closing dialogue around this issue, we need more folks like you who are willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. Thanks and please keep up the dialogue.”

These messages shall and tomorrow’s message brings us to another sensitive thought.

Until then may I ask for your help? It is time to expand what we share at this site by introducing more readers. To do this, we are offering a free 15 lesson course “International Currencies Made EZ”. There are no strings attached, no cookies, no pop ups, no spam, etc. We don’t even ask for a reader's email address for this course as we only want those who feel they are really gaining from what they read to then sign up. All I ask is to let people see what we share and during these times when we have so much risk of a falling US dollar this course can be invaluable.